Tucked away at the top of Dale’s Brewery in Gwydir Street – so close to the iconic clock that you could open the window and touch it – is an extraordinary little charity.

Called SexYOUality, it runs drop-in sessions for young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people, to see them through those difficult teenage years.

“It’s not a therapy group,” says the charity’s Miriam Lynn. “We don’t sit there going ‘How grim is it being gay?!’ We’re more about making pizzas, having barbecues, going punting... It’s about building confidence.”

But it wasn’t so very long ago that a charity like this couldn’t have existed. And so, when it turned 20 last year, Miriam decided to embark on an ambitious project. “I just thought ‘We’ve been going 20 years, but what’s happened previously?’ And I thought it would interesting for the young people, who don’t necessarily have a strong understanding of their past – because in a sense it’s not a ‘blood past’ – to find out.”

Thus 20:20 Vision was born. The idea? To train 20 young LGBT people (the youngest at 14) to interview 20 older LGBT people (the oldest at the grand old age of 88) and find out how much – or how little – has changed over the years.

And to say it’s been a success is something of an understatement. “I had no idea how emotionally charged it was going to be, and how much people would share of themselves,” says Miriam. “We’ve been in tears as workers, as young people, as older people. There’ve been some extremely emotional stories.”

The most obvious difference between ‘then’ and ‘now’, of course, is that homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967. This came out strongly in the story of Toni, who was in the forces during the 1960s.

“She was outed as a lesbian by the RAF, who then told her mother about it, and she was sent to a mental institution where they gave her electric shock aversion therapy to try and ‘cure’ her of her ‘mental illness’,” says Miriam, tracing the quotation marks in the air. “And for us, this isn’t history in history books, this is somebody we know!”

The theme of fear came out in other stories too: some spoke of their dread of being thrown into prison, losing their friends, alienating their parents; others spoke of feeling ‘like a freak’, and the threat of being beaten up.

How did the young people react? “Often with shock, but with deep respect. Although they’re not living in a world where it’s criminalised, a lot of them have been bullied. So there’s a degree of empathy, and I think that was the beauty of this: that sense of shared identity.”

Another particularly memorable story, says Miriam, is that of former LibDem councillor Sarah Brown, who was born a man. “She talks about transitioning, which was very emotional and powerful. One of her friends asks ‘Do you ever think you’ll fully transition?’, and she thinks ‘Well if I don’t, then maybe one day I’ll end up being a sad, lonely old man in an old people’s home - and nobody will know why I’m crying’.”

For many of the older people, she says, it was surprisingly cathartic, “and a real experience to relive some of their pasts. One of the things they said was that the interview just wasn’t long enough!

“And the younger people were blown away, not only about learning the skills, but also about the stories: how moving it was to have shared experiences, and how things are different for them now.”

Yet although much has changed for the better – it’s now easier to meet people, to be openly together, to see positive role models – Miriam says that some issues remain the same, most notably the whole ‘coming out’ experience.

“Coming out to parents is still a massive theme. The young people that we work with often have parents who reject them: it’s incredible; but we’re still working with young people who are made homeless.

“Sometimes the fear of it is actually worse than the reality, and attitudes have shifted massively over the last 20 years. But as a child, you still fear that you’re disappointing your parents.”

By the end of the project, the team had gathered specially-commissioned photographs and illustrations, taken workshops out to 20 local schools, and even made a 20-minute film. “Then we brought everybody together for a celebration at the Fitz, which was really moving,” says Miriam. “And now we’re hoping to make a book of all the transcriptions, because these are stories that have never been told publicly.”

Not surprisingly, Miriam is thrilled by how it’s all turned out. “It’s been an immensely positive, life-affirming experience,” she says.

“It’s really about the power of bringing people together to share stories, in a world that’s focusing more and more on non-human interaction. It’s made human interaction even more precious - and I just feel so honoured that we’ve made it happen.”

CASE STUDIES: Two participants of LGBT 20:20 Vision – one older, one younger – on their experience of the project

Colin Clews, 61, Cambridge

“If somebody says ‘Would you like to talk about your life?’ it’s hard to say no! It was interesting to be with a person who just wants to hear you talk - fascinating and cathartic - and it’s interesting what comes up. The first question was ‘Tell me about your childhood’, which surprised me. I thought ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’ But when I was a kid I was very involved with marionettes, and my father absolutely hated it – he used to call it ‘playing with my dolls’ – so that was an education for me as well.

And then moving on through coming out: I read all these books about how to come out to your parents; it was all about not saying ‘I’ve got something awful to tell you’, or ‘you’re not going to like this, but…’, so I had this script in my head to tell my mother, and halfway through it she said ‘That’s fine, I don’t care what you are, you’re still my son’. So I then burst into tears and the only thing that was going through my mind was ‘This is not what it says in the book!’ We were off script. She never talked about it again, though. It was like ‘OK, I’ll lock that piece of information away now’, but I’d ticked the box.

Being gay was tougher then in so many ways. The representation of LGBT people on television was Mr Humphreys on Are You Being Served?; now it’s like ‘Well, who’s come out this week?’

There are still lots of issues though. If you get two people of the same sex walking down the street holding hands, then you’ll see how far we’ve really come, which is not very far in that respect. We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a lot to do.”

Jacob Nightingale, 18, Cambridge

“I’ve been part of SexYOUality for about four years through the drop-in groups, and this project sounded like a really good opportunity to give something back.

I interviewed a couple in their 80s who were adorable. They were talking about growing up in a time when it was illegal to be gay, and the hardships that that presented. To hear a story like that first-hand from someone was powerful and hard-hitting.

I feel like I’ve learned a lot about what has changed – and also what hasn’t. For young LGBT people, coming out probably isn’t any easier, but the challenges are different.

Personally, I think I had it quite lucky. I came out to a few friends, who proceeded to come out to the rest of the school for me! I was on edge about who did and didn’t know, so I put a picture of myself on Facebook wearing a T-shirt saying ‘Likes boys’ on it, just to make sure everyone was aware!

I came out to my mother in a letter. For some reason the first few times of just saying the words ‘I am gay’ are so difficult, so I wrote this really long letter and sat with her while she was reading it. You just assume that it’s going to be horrendous, but in my head I knew that my parents were going to be OK with it – they’re liberal, calm parents – but there’s always this fear.

One of the biggest things for me was helping out with the [school] workshops. It was really brilliant to be able to talk to a group of young people about these issues, and know that statistically someone in one of those classes is going to be LGBT. To have a few LGBT people standing up at the front and say ‘Hey, I’m gay, here’s some history for you, here’s some of the issues we have today’ is a really good way of making them feel like ‘Yeah, it is normal’.”

::SexYOUality run a number of services in Cambridge, Ely and Huntingdon for LGBT people aged 14 to 24. For more information call (01223) 369508 or visit syacambs.org.

::A 20-minute film about the LGBT 20:20 Vision project will have its première at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse on Thursday, August 21 at 9pm. Entrance is free.